While I Was Out...: My Near-Death Experience & Soul Altering Journey

By Deirdre Dewitt Maltby

A near fatal accident and subsequent 12 daylong coma were to change my life forever. I am just an ordinary woman now sharing this totally unexpected yet extraordinary adventure! Awakening within another realm and outside of my physical body, I was propelled into a spiritual odyssey of new insights on life, the essence we call God, and who I am as a person.

This book is a written account of both the journey and lessons learned during and after my amazing near death experience. Within these pages I piece together the wonders learned from the other side of reality and the other side of my soul - the wonder of meeting God.

Can a near death experience totally change a persons life? It certainly did mine! Yet the lessons learned were not just for me alone. Perhaps, just perhaps, there is something inside of these pages that could help change your life too.

This is what I have been led to share. This is what happenedWhile I Was Out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469150789

Deirdre Dewitt Maltby

Deirdre (Dea) Dewitt Maltby is a fledgling author, now a spiritually transformed person with a remarkable and inspiring story to tell. Married with one grown son, she owns and operates an antique store with her sister within a small mountain town in Colorado. In 2011 Deirdre’s story was aired on the Biography Channel’s TV series entitled: I Survived…Beyond and Back. She has shared her book with readers around the world, and welcomes all comments, questions or feedback. You can reach her at: [e-mail]

Book preview

While I Was Out…

My Near-Death Experience

&

Soul Altering Journey

Deirdre Dewitt Maltby

Copyright © 2012 by Deirdre Dewitt Maltby.

ISBN:          Ebook                                      978-1-4691-5078-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was created in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

103945

. . . God Came In

Contents

_________A Sister’s Words_________

_______Introduction_______

___Part One___

The Last Thing I Was Doing

Just Another Ordinary Day

Bright Lights and a Sense of Calm

Where Am I?

The Textiles of the Universe

Back Through the Looking Glass

Visions on the Wall

Rocky Balboa, an Angel and Me

Sunsets and Love

A Blue Room, Smoke, and Promises

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

The Learning Circle of Love

___Part Two___

Going Forward

Listening From Within My Heart

Beginning to Understand

To You

_Order and Contact Information_

_________A Sister’s Words_________

I have believed in miracles for a long time. In November of 2008, I was a first-hand witness to several of them.

Miracle (noun) 1. An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God:

Then Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and miracles happen, you never will believe (trust, have faith) at all.

—John 4: 48

I believe that we overlook miracles on a daily basis, and sometimes, God has to speak loudly to get our attention.

This book is the account of my sister’s story, as she was a participant in the most wonderful miracle of all. She was held in the palm of God’s hand and felt His unconditional love in a very personal way—a way that has changed her, or should I say, has answered a lot of her questions, and helped her find her true self.

On November 18, 2008, a horrible automobile accident started a chain of events that sent ripples into many lives, probably more than we can actually account for. The following pages are my sister’s own words and journal about the events during her odyssey and subsequent thoughts and experiences. It’s an amazing journey, to say the least, one that has brought my sister to a place of peace in this world of confusion.

I know she would have liked to stay in the paradise she experienced, but I’m thankful she’s still here with me.

Sandy Lyles

_______Introduction_______

On many cold days in January 2010, I sat in my Colorado home in front of a warm fire, pulled out all my journals from the previous ten months, and did what I was supposed to—write this story. Since I am not a professional writer, nor have I ever considered myself to be an author, I had apprehensions about what I was attempting to do. Even the journal writing from those past months had been a new undertaking for me. Yet something inside kept tugging at me, prodding me, to share my near-death experience. I felt I was supposed to write all of this down and send it out into the world for reasons beyond my own knowing.

Previously I had been living my life in what was the normal fashion for me. Yet in the middle of one of those ordinary days my unexceptional pattern of life was about to take a major turn. Within the blink of an eye, normal turned into life threatening chaos. It was a chain of events that would introduce me to another realm of consciousness.

I was not a religious (we are talking organized type religion here) person before my adventure you will soon read about, nor am I now. I am just an ordinary woman, who had an extraordinary journey into a place beyond this earthly realm that changed her soul forever. And today, well, today I have God—who would have thought? No religion—just God, in the wonderful essence of pure Love. I walk nowhere now without Him. Apparently—I had Him all my life—I just didn’t know it yet.

An ordinary day was turned upside down; a soul somehow changed beyond any previous comprehension of how a life could change. I will share with you the story of how it all unfolded, in ways I am only now beginning to understand and incorporate into my life.

Originally I had three hundred books of my story printed. Basically these were to share with family, friends, and the close-knit community of my hometown. I knew that many would want to, or be curious to, read my story. Yet, I was almost afraid I might end up wallpapering my kitchen with the bright yellow-orange covers of many left over and unread paperbacks. But to my surprise and joy, within a few months, they were all out in the hands of others. The subsequent requests that came in for the book soon depleted my first supply, and I was thrilled that several additional printing runs of the book would become more of a reality for me than I could ever imagine. I then realized I was doing the right thing by relinquishing my words and thoughts to the universe.

Over the months, since September 2010, I started sharing my writing through local bookstores and the small business that I run with my family. I also spread the story through friends and acquaintances by word of mouth. As a result, I have had some very special interactions and conversations with people who came to get, or were given, a copy of my book. A little over a year after my accident, in mid 2010, and while I was in the middle of trying to write about my series of events, the Biography Channel found me—this unknown woman living in the Colorado mountains—and asked me to share my story on a series dedicated to near death experiences. This was just another little miracle showing me, that there was a reason I was supposed to tell others about this experience. I think that more than likely the rest of my life will find me doing that in one form or another.

At present, I think of the ripples that go out from here fanning out from this book. I think of the people who perhaps will be touched enough by my story that it may stir something inside of them. If this happens—I feel it is God doing the touching—He’s only using me to get through to others.

God, Spirit, or whatever your name for the Creator is, works in many ways to touch our lives. My hope is that for you, this book might be one of them.

So, if we may never get a chance to speak or meet in person, please know that I am so grateful for the opportunity to have interacted with your life in some small way.

Thank you for your interest in my story.

Dea

___Part One___

The Last Thing I Was Doing

The last thing I was doing was looking for God. For me it was just an ordinary day, and I certainly wasn’t doing anything that could even remotely be considered a spiritual quest. In fact, I was happily planning for the Christmas holidays ahead. I was enjoying a few days of shopping for our antique store and a bit of time off to be with family. That fall day, little did I know what awaited me. Little did I know the me I had always known was about to die.

For the past thirteen years, I have made my home in the small, remote, and breathtakingly beautiful mountain town of Salida, Colorado. I moved across the country from South Florida with my husband Daniel and son Brendan to this rural hideaway just east of the Continental Divide. At the same time my only sibling, Sandy, also brought her husband and two sons to this quaint little mountain town. We all seemed to be longing to make mid-life changes; we liked the idea of starting our new lives in a new location. As parents we also felt Salida was a good choice for a place to live and finish raising our respective families.

Before this move to the west, my life as a whole had been quite full and rewarding, both in business and social endeavors. I have always been a hard worker at whatever my undertakings, and, I am proud to say, I have been happily self-employed for most of my working years. After college at Parson’s School of Design in New York City, I left my chosen field of fashion design and operated, along with husband Dan, our own commercial design studio for almost fourteen years in my hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After the death of my mother and then making the move to Colorado in 1997, I changed gears, and together with my sister, began to delve into the world of antiques. Running both the commercial design studio in Florida and later the antique business in Colorado was more of an act of love than the drudgery of real work. Even though the ups and downs of my life have been numerous, I always have felt that I was still a fairly together person. I have always been a person who has been active, able to adapt, and willing to try new adventures.

The story I share is of an experience that came from out of the blue—an adventure for which I was not prepared, to say the least. On an ordinary day in the natural course of living, a near-fatal car accident became the turning point of my world. My life, my way of thinking, and my very being was transformed in ways that I never would have imagined. Those changes are ongoing to this day and part of what I will try to convey within these writings.

I’m not really sure how to start the pages of this book. In fact, communicating any of my important thoughts and experiences—any of my interior life—has always been difficult for me. Now I am attempting to bare to the world and transform into the concrete form of written words, my thoughts and experiences of a very private nature.

How does one describe the indescribable, or speak of concepts that seemingly cannot be said with mere words? How then does one accurately put into words the account of such an unexpected spiritual journey? Truly, words do fall short, but I will do my best to convey how God or Source reached me, and what crossing over to another realm of existence was like.

My life has been so altered by this incredible and totally unexpected journey of the past year. I view this experience as quite a spiritual gift. It is a gift given to me that I can now share with others.